xXVili INTRODUCTORY 
In former days the legislator said in effect, ‘‘ The 
salmon breeds in our rivers, and after breeding is 
not fit for human food: we must protect the fish 
while it breeds, and protect the lieges against un- 
wholesome feeding.” The system of having District 
Fishery Boards and the supervision of a central 
authority has now sprung up, however, and our 
legislation must necessarily take account of this and 
of the duties which naturally fall to be dealt with 
by one body or the other. In Scotland, our District 
Boards are composed entirely of the proprietors who 
own the rights of fishings. The Crown may be, and 
frequently is, a local proprietor of such rights, but 
none but proprietors have apparently any say in the 
matter of local management. With the natural 
trend of modern development it is perhaps fair to 
assume that in the future District Boards will have 
assigned to them wider discretionary powers : they 
will be expected to know what is for the best interest 
of the districts under their charge; while the central 
authority will be expected to concern itself in the 
general interests of the salmon fisheries as a whole 
and in the particular questions which, arising locally 
and of local importance, require settlement at the 
hands of a neutral authority. 
Already in many districts private associations 
are springing up in order to deal more effectively 
with such points, for instance, as the amount of 
netting which safely may be allowed in particular 
districts, a point which, if they had power, District 
Fishery Boards might very well be expected to con- 
trol. Each district has to be dealt with on its own 
